By time Onslaught came out, I hadn’t played in a year since an abortive start at Jedi Under Siege, and hadn’t regularly played since around the time the Chiss flashpoint came out. But then the world went crazy a few months later and – well, I didn’t actually have more time to play, but a lot of people did so it was fun to finally jump back in.

• The general state of the galaxy is unchanged from the end of Jedi Under Siege. The Republic and Empire are back at war, with the Empire on the offensive led by a resurrected Darth Malgus. The Alliance has joined the conflict on the side of the Commander’s original faction, although the Commander has the option of being a double agent (known only to themself, Lana, and optionally Theron).
• The Republic once again has the upper hand, with a shipyard on Corellia that’s the target of Malgus’ operation. The Republic knows this is the target of the next Imperial attack, so they’re scrambling fleets to its defense. It’s up to you to ensure they get the fuel they need to get there – or not.
• The first planet, Onderon, is a lot of fun. Queen Lina has died, and like on Alderaan, the Empire and Republic are fighting a proxy war to try to win control of the planet. The late Queen’s son, Petryph, is an Imperial puppet and complete buffoon, so it’s little surprise the Republic government is looking for alternate leadership. Helping Onderon avoid this particular disaster is a good enough story from the Republic side, but it’s a blast as an Imperial saboteur1I have little interest in playing pro-Empire stories, so all I’ve seen is Republic loyalist and Imperial saboteur. Maybe someday. Maybe., where you and the Dark Council member running the Imperial operation can continually mock Petryph, and you can ultimately assassinate him from the shadows to ruin the Imperial hopes of a foothold.
• Jakarro and C2-D4 are back – not a huge surprise if you paid more attention to the droid than Jakarro does – answering the question of what became of them after Yavin. This is a welcome return, and they get the absolute best moment of the expansion that doesn’t involve another companion coming back – the two are humorously debating which of the Empire’s allies on Onderon is dumber, and Jakarro sees something in Petryph that makes him concede that yes, it’s Petryph.
• Mek-Sha is an interesting place. It’s in Hutt Space but has broken away from Hutt control, and is now ruled by a coalition of guilds. Your goal is to get three of the guilds to support refueling the Republic fleet – earnestly or to lure them into a trap, depending on your allegiance – and with the overall leader and the guild that allies with the Republic on board (and the slavers that ally with the Empire looking too suspicious if they support the Republic), choose one of the two others. Which, sadly, comes down to a simple black/white morality choice – one guild’s leader has a personal problem he wants dealt with, the other is unlikable enough before his request is to kill the other guild’s leader.
• The attack on Corellia is a flashpoint, and it’s a return to form after the Fractured Alliances trio. The most interesting thing is the flashpoint is more or less the same but the bosses are different between Republic and Empire, not the same bosses with different names as seen in previous Republic/Empire clashes like the boarding party in Mandalorian Raiders or the Tython/Korriban duo, nor completely different flashpoints like the Revan story. Republic players get to fight Malgus and defeat him again, Imperials fight the Republic story companion Tau Idair. Other interesting things: Imperial side, there are hints that Darth Krovos has a personal grudge against Corellia, but it’s not explored much. And Tharan Cedrax returned, but sadly only as a companion for consulars.
• I do slightly question, as badly as the Empire seemed to need this win, if they don’t get it, how much longer can they drag this war out?
• Loyalists get a choice to fully rejoin their original faction. It’s mostly meaningless, but it does feel nice to have my main recognized primarily as a Jedi again.
• And the best part of all: Kira and Scourge return! For everyone, even!
• And finally, gearing kept the “everybody gets good gear” system from Eternal Throne but took a much more sane approach. Gear drops were plentiful – conquest was worth a half-dozen pieces, and if you didn’t get what you want randomly, it wasn’t that hard to save up and buy the pieces you want. Everything’s legacy-bound. The one quibble with the system is the sheer number of mods with slightly different stats was a bit silly, but could be worked with easily enough.

So, by the end of Onslaught, I was feeling pretty happy. Now, most of the rest of the story was on pause because getting actors into the studio to record lines was challenging, but finally it felt things were in a good place.

Next: The post-release 6.X content: the final defeat of the Emperor and the start of a Mandalorian civil war.